Mora press conference: Hasselbeck, Jones updates

Obviously, what everyone wants to know is the status of quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, and head coach Jim More didn't waste time getting to it.

"Let's talk first about what you all want to know about and that's Matt," Mora said. "I've always had a lot of respect for him and it keeps growing and here's why."

And basically, Mora then told the story of meeting with the press on Monday and then going to the locker room about two hours later and seeing Hasselbeck in "excruciating pain." Not exactly what he wanted to see after telling the media just hours before that Hass would practice on Wednesday. Mora said that Hasselbeck was also upset about his condition. Mora just tried to comfort his quarterback and tell him that things could be better on Tuesday.

And ...

"He had come in and gotten his treatment and taken a couple of aspirin - high potency aspirin - and gone out on the field and worked out and fought his way through it," Mora said. "And he's going to go on the field today."

Hasselbeck will participate in stretch, individual work, installation and then the Seahawks will reevaluate where he's at and see how much more they will have him do.

"If he can keep pushing, he'll keep pushing," Mora said. "The guy is without question doing everything possible to get out on the football field. That's what you'd expect of him. But to see him every day and the kind of the ups and downs of pushing the injury and his willingness to do what it takes at any level to get out on the field has really garnered a lot of respect around here from me, the coaches and his players."

So does that mean he'll be ready to go on Sunday? Not exactly.

"Let's all keep our fingers crossed and see how it goes today with him," Mora.

But hold on, what about this whole "excruciating pain" thing on Monday what caused that?

"It was just part of the healing process," Mora said.

Well, okay then. IT's not usually any part of the healing processes that I know of, but I guess we'll believe him.

Really it's not a question of how tough Hasselbeck is, but whether he can be effective and whether playing on Sunday could make the situation worse and have miss more time.

"Being tough is not enough," Mora said. " Being smart, being able to function. We just have to see where he is a tthe end of the week. Time will tell. By the time we get to Saturday we should have a pretty good idea."

Obviously, Hasselbeck wants to get out on the field. And he'll push to play. He's been doing that, but hopefully not to detriment.

"Matt's smart though. We're going to make the right decision," Mora said.

Now onto other things ...

Patrick Kerney has a strained groin and will not practice today, but Mora is hopeful he'll play Sunday.

Walter Jones will not practice this week, and Eric asked if they are looking to get through the bye week and then reevaluate, which Mora confirmed.

It later led to how it affects the decision of bringing in another tackle.

"I don't know if there is anybody out there, we can go get," Mora said.

He talked about the personnel department and coaches studying up on players.

"If there's a guy we need to find about, we make time to study him," Mora said. "And then you say, ok is this the right guy and then you try to bring him in, and if he's not, you don't. It's not always as cut and dried as you think."

Mora said they don't ignore anything.

"If we didn't see it as our best solution, then we would make a move," he said. "If there was a better solution, then we would. This is the solution we have and we are going to make it work."

Part of the problem in the solution is Jones himself. They have to respect him as a player, what he's done for the organization and his overall belief that he can return. Mora was asked if he had a "drop dead date" where they have to make a decision on Jones and what to do with him.

"Yeah, but it's not firm," Mora said. "We're talking about a hall of famer. There's a lot of factors that go into it. What's best for the team, how much respect do you show Walter. If Walter can get back, how long do we wait for him. What if we IR'd him and two weeks later, he's ready to go, would you look back and just be sick about it. It's a puzzle. And we talk about it every day. We talk to Walter as well. We're all on the same page. We're just trying to make the right decision. And right now, the right decision as far as all of us are concerned - coaches, doctors, trainers and Walter -is back off see where it is in a couple weeks and reassess."

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About the Seahawks Insider Blog

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.